Discovering the adversary, one day at a time

August 02, 2011

A Study of Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet (2d ed) - Part 3

The Introduction to the second edition of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet, begins with a verse of secular poetry.

Cutting forest trees is not useless, They are for a pulpit or for a cross.

The verse comes from a poem of Mohammed Iqbal. A secular poet and champion of the Islamic revival, Iqbal is the second secular poet Zawahiri turns to, and like al-Kawakbi, Iqbal advocated for broader Islamic revival. Iqbal was also an advocate for the Pakistani state, and an ideal choice if Zawahiri had in part a Pakistani audience in mind. Iqbal would appeal to the tastes of many of his Pakistani supporters and protectors.

He formally opens Knights 2 with a prayer of repentance.

All praise is due to God. We worship Him, We seek His help and His forgiveness and we turn to Him in repentance. We seek refuge in God from the evil within ourselves and our ill deeds. Whoever God guides cannot be led astray and whomever He leads astray, for him there is no guide. There is no god but God. He is alone, He has no partner and Muhammad is his servant and messenger.

A few paragraphs down he’ll note that the book isn’t a history (my word) or an analysis (my word). And it certainly doesn’t leave a knowledgeable reader with the impression that its an ideological “manifesto." Then what is it? This prayer of repentance suggests that Zawahiri primarily intends Knights 2 as a confessionary work. It’s unknown whether that was the original intention for Knights 1, but it comes through clearly in the opening prayer for Knights 2: We seek refuge in God from the evil within ourselves and our ill deeds. It ends, appropriately, with an assertion of the mystical foundation of Salafist-jihadist thought: tawhid, the oneness of God.

He goes on:

"Ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam,” [Koranic verse, Al Imran, 3:102]. “O mankind! Reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, his mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women; reverence Allah, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (That bore you): for Allah ever watches over you” [Koranic verse, Al-Nisa, 4:1]. “O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and (always) say a word directed to the Right, that He may make your conduct whole and sound and forgive you your sins: He that obeys Allah and His Messenger, has already attained the highest achievement” [Koranic verse, Al-Ahzab, 33:70, 71].

Three passages from the Quran (drawn from three Medinan suras, if you keep track of those things) represents a three-fold paradigm of worship within the Salafist-jihadi milieu: fear of God, reverence for life given you, and the practice of righteous conduct accompanied with a penitent heart. Even though practically all Zawahiri's work include some religious context, that context will change from work to work. He chose the words to this prayer, probably because they emphasize significant and recurring themes throughout the book, and place its historical accounts in their appropriate context.

Zawahiri begins his “re”-introduction of Knights with the intention of correcting the record and settling a few scores associated with Knights 1. But first he offers personal context and motivation for the second edition:

Thereafter, I chose to publish this first part of the second edition of the book "Knights Under the Prophet's Banner" before the completion of the second edition, due to the circumstances that the mujahidin pass through. I hope to complete the second edition if God, to Whom is ascribed all perfection, prolongs my life, grants me support, and facilitates the circumstances.

In this edition, I expanded on a number of passages in the book, particularly those relating to the blessed raids on Washington, New York, and Pennsylvania. However, I stopped there, choosing not to elaborate on the events that followed these raids, because the battle is still violent and the enemy seeks any information. Moreover, many Muslim brothers are captured by the enemy and may be influenced by what I might mention. Therefore, I preferred to talk only about the blessed raids, and as I mentioned in the introduction of the first edition:

The reader might expect to find in this book a history of a certain period or a narration of the incidents of a certain phase. He might also expect to find an analysis of policies, evaluation of certain methodologies, or critique of some systems. However, I draw the honorable reader's attention to the fact that the book -- even if it deals with any of that -- has not been written for such purposes, nor can its writer fulfill it.

The reason why this book has not been written for such purposes is in fact a message from the writer to his ummah. It is nothing like what the honorable reader might expect, even if the book includes a history or an analysis.

As for why the writer cannot fulfill it, there are many reasons. One of the reasons is that the writer does not have enough stability to ‘gather enough documentation necessary for this kind of analytical writing.’ Furthermore, the author possesses only his testimony which he cannot provide in detail because many of its characters are still in the midst of battle, and many of its events are still interacting in the field."

Thus, I ask the reader to accept this book (message) from me as it is, and this book is enough for a goal and a success.

What I want from this book is to deliver a message and a loyalty. It is not just a historiography and analysis, for I am not nor can I be, in my circumstances, a historiography or an analyst, even if I was one of these two.